Topic: Oreo

[bridgecity]

Meet Oreo.  The senior of our two Junior's new ride  .  She a beautifully minty (mint in colour only, not condition) 2010 Ford Focus SE with a 5 speed manual.  Picked this up a few weeks ago and its the only pic that I have of it so far, on the street in the sellers neighbourhood.

I knew there was a few issues with it when buying.  Engine light was on indicating a temp sensor (owner didn't reveal the other code to me related to the cat converter) and signal light indicator wasn't working at all time on the instrument panel, although actual lights were working on the exterior.  We took a gamble anyway and bought the thing.

In the subsequent days of owning the car it became apparent that the instrument cluster was fubar'd.  Random warning lights and intermittent gauges.  Turns out it's an issue with the Focii.  Also, AC compressor was making an awful noise.  These items were not apparent on the test drive, I guess I didn't drive it long enough.  Also, after pulling the spark plugs to have a look it became obvious the valve cover gasket was leaking.  Oh... and the engine would stutter after running for 20 minutes or so. 

I picked up a used instrument cluster at the gov't salvage and had it programmed by Ford.  That cleared all the warning/gauge issues.  I ordered an AC compressor from Rockauto and had a buddy install and recharge, that took care of the AC issue.  Then last Friday Junior and myself did the valve cover gasket and coils/plugs.  That took care of the engine stutter.  The engine temperature sensor was simple unplugged, so once plugged in the temp senor light was resolved.  The car has been running well over the last few days, so hopefully its mostly sorted.  It is burning some oil but haven't gotten a handle on how much as of yet. 

Junior put about 300km on it over the weekend on a mostly highway round trip and averaged 6l/100km, so pretty good.  The car rides pretty decent, and the manual shifts nice, its very forgiving.  Junior has picked up on that aspect very quickly, having never driven a manual car before (just 16 a few months back).

Anyway, hopefully Oreo serves him well for the next little bit until he can save some money and upgrade if he wishes.

[bridgecity]

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[Great_Big_Abyss]

Cool.  Congrats to the kid.  Should hopefully be nice and cheap to run.

[tortoise]

Wow. The lack of rust is impressive.  Around here these have all been sent to the salvage yard by now.

A buddy of mine had one of these. Despite minimal maintenance it treated him pretty well.

[rrocket]

Nice!!

[Jaeger]

Cool find - happy motoring!

[Arthur Dent]

5spd should make it a fun little run about. Nice. 

[Firm]

Haven't seen one of those with rocker panels in ages, should be an fun economical little beater. The first generation Focus made a pretty big splash, it remember it being really popular here, these second generation units less so....I think competition was pretty tough by the time the 2nd gen came out.

I've probably told this story in here before, but I briefly owned a 1st gen, a 'nice' fully loaded ZTS (with the 2.0L Zetec), leather, sunroof, etc. Think it was a 2002. Got it from my in-laws for $300 in around 2009....It was overheating and my FIL had thrown the parts cannon at it without any success. I diag'd it down to a resistor for the electric fan, pulled the old one and sent Mrs.Firm to the scrap yard for a replacement...She came back with a bag of them for $0 thanks to a low cut top and teenaged good looks. By the end of the day we had a pretty sweet practical little car....So I sold it a few weeks later and we kept driving the older far less practical vehicles we already had. 

[bridgecity]

Thanks all, should be a decent runabout for the boy.

Yes, most of this gen is rotted out in the rocker panels in this area also.  I’m sure this one isn’t far behind, the signs are there.

I picked up a set of 16” wheels from a first gen Focus for $125. Not sure what model they are from but they are in good shape and will be an upgrade at some point. Winters will go on the current steelies and likely get new rubber on the nicer set at some point.

I thought about just flipping this thing but then I’m just getting into another unit that may not be as strong of a runner. The way the used car market is here right now anything under 8k that’s half decent sells within days.  You need to be willing to look at the car immediately and make an offer. Either that or make an offer sight unseen.

[HeliDriver]

That looks really nice! Should be a nimble & fun ride with the stick.

I rented a first-gen Focus wagon with a stick for four weeks in Europe back around 2002 or so. It was not a bad little car at all.

[Allen]

nice find

[ianmcc]

I have owned my fair share of first gen Focus and the first order of buisiness has always been moulded Focus logo mud flaps. The tires kick up salt and road debris and the mud flaps protect that area to some degree.

[OliverD]

Haven't seen one of those with rocker panels in ages, should be an fun economical little beater. The first generation Focus made a pretty big splash, it remember it being really popular here, these second generation units less so....I think competition was pretty tough by the time the 2nd gen came out.

It didn't help that Europe got an all new second gen model and we were stuck with what was basically a facelifted first gen with all the fun options removed (hatch, wagon, SVT models).

[PJungnitsch]

Junior put about 300km on it over the weekend on a mostly highway round trip and averaged 6l/100km, so pretty good.  The car rides pretty decent, and the manual shifts nice, its very forgiving.  Junior has picked up on that aspect very quickly, having never driven a manual car before (just 16 a few months back).

That's awfully good mileage! I guess they were built for Europe which has had over $2.00/l gas for a long time now.

I think the biggest problem on that second gen Focus was the powershift transmission, so good he can do the manual.

[JohnnyMac]

Junior put about 300km on it over the weekend on a mostly highway round trip and averaged 6l/100km, so pretty good.  The car rides pretty decent, and the manual shifts nice, its very forgiving.  Junior has picked up on that aspect very quickly, having never driven a manual car before (just 16 a few months back).

That's awfully good mileage! I guess they were built for Europe which has had over $2.00/l gas for a long time now.

I think the biggest problem on that second gen Focus was the powershift transmission, so good he can do the manual.

You are thinking about the 3rd generation Focus, this generation had a traditional automatic.

[Gurgie]

Nice work!

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[bridgecity]

Oreo died tonight. Met her fate with a buck. Son was on his way to the lake after work. Main thing is Junior is all good. Too bad with the work put into her and the month old tires. She was giving us no problems besides the oil consumption. Ah well, onwards.






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[Great_Big_Abyss]

Bummer.  Glad the boy is okay. 

[me_2]

Bummer.  Glad the boy is okay.

+1. Most important is your boy being safe, even if it is sad for his car.

Last year  my son's Volt Volt was hit, he was ok but the insurance didn't want to fix his car...

[JohnnyMac]

I’m sure that was scary for everyone, but glad everyone is okay.  Keep the receipt for the tires as that should be factored into any insurance pay out.